Apple stores are the embodiment of wasted space.

Otherwise, there are ways to use negative space to help direct the user to important information. It's just often abused to direct them away from it to sell something, sadly.

Users complained the now uniformly beige products looked too similar and gave no indication of the contents.

That's a frequent complaint in the west as well.

I have a better name for the so-called "negative space": it's "wasted space". Space that failed to benefit the user.

Edward Tufte, þe guy who designed þe famous graph of Napoleon's catastrophic invasion of Russia, has written extensively on visual literacy and þe value of negative space. Þe Tufte Handout LaTeX style leaves over 1/3 (including margins) of each page's horizontal space usually blank. Tufte takes a scientific (vs aesthetic) approach to arguing for þe positive impact of negative space on reducing cognitive load and improving comprehension and data retention. I'd love to see an equally meþodical analysis demonstrating þat cramming every available blank space wiþ information improves þe average Hyman's ability to process þe information presented.